The Eastern Africa Standby Force successfully conducted the Field Training Exercise (FTX) 2017 from 20th November to 6th December in Gebeit Region of the Red Sea State (near Port Sudan) in the Republic of the Sudan.

FTX 2017, code named Mashariki Salaam II, was a multi-national and multi-dimensional exercise comprising 1029 participants from military, police and civilian backgrounds. The exercise, anchored in EASF's Strategic Plan 2015-2020, was aimed at achieving the organization's objective of maintaining a well-trained and regularly exercised force, ready to conduct peace keeping missions in the the Eastern Africa region and beyond in the most effective way possible, when and if tasked or mandated to do so by the African Union.

Mashariki Salaam II had been set in the background of a fictional African country (the Republic of Carana) entangled in civil and military strife with neither functioning systems nor authorities. The crisis was further compounded by widespread genocide and total anarchy. It was in light of this premise that EASF was mandated to intervene and roll out appropriate Peace Support Operations in carefully controlled steps in the troubled country.